DREADWOLF - Chapter 120

“I don’t like it, I don’t like this at all” grumbled Rain.

“Yeah, well, eating half a gang and spreading bits of them all over a warehouse, along with gods knows how much blood, is going to cause some problems okay?” Lyra waved her arms wildly in the general direction that the blood was in, which happened to be pretty much every direction. “I mean what do you think is going to happen if somebody comes across this? Bad things, that’s what! Guard things!”

Rain set his lips in a line and eyed her, then lowered his gaze to the two cleaning potions she had in her hands. He’d already used one to clean his fur. She wanted to use more?

“But do we have to use my valuable cleaning potions? They are… limited.”

“Unless you can magic several mops and barrels of water and a convenient drain out of thin air then yes. I’ve already had Red clean up in my wool space,” she lowered her voice to a dark mutter, “Although I hardly had to ask, he was more concerned about his gold than me.” She looked back up at Rain, “Now we just have to do it everywhere else. Look, it’s only a few potions, it’ll be fine.”

Rain understood it was necessary. It was just that using a few potions here meant a few potions less to clean himself when he was in dire need later. He considered whether it was worth the risk of leaving the warehouse looking like an incredibly violent massacre had taken place.

It took a moment.

But in the end he reluctantly agreed she had a point and Lyra upended the first potion onto the flagstones.

Rain watched in dismay as the clear fluid fizzed and bubbled and washed out for a dozen feet leaving behind perfectly clean and blemish free stone, like it was freshly lain by masons.

His dismay only increased as Lyra used the potion in her other hand then stuck her hand in her currently black wooled thigh and waved it around. She pulled free and then after waiting a moment a red-scaled pair of claws emerged holding a fresh bottle of cleaning potion which she politely collected.

It didn’t take long for the job to be done with the power of the potions. Liberally splashing the powerful cleaning substance around left the place going from looking like an overly excited butcher’s shop floor to looking as though an army of expert cleaners had assaulted the place. Twice.

At last, after a painfully large number of potions were used, it was done, and then Red emerged from Lyra’s wool with one more cleaning potion.

Rain wasn’t sure he wanted to know how much of his collection was left. He watched as the sheep girl’s wool slipped back to cloud white and then she scampered outside and began pouring the potion onto the long lines of red created by one of the gang member’s fingers.

Opal tapped  her chin as she looked over the result. “This stuff is cleaning and that means it is automatically bad, but I can admittedly see its uses,” she turned to Rain and grinned, “No more mess from eating levelers or cattle or stuff. Can’t get chased around by angry levelers if the evidence just disappears into thin air!”

Rain’s dismay only increased.

“That… would need so many of my limited number of potions…”

Lyra waggled the bottle in her hand, shaking the last few drips free, and then turned to Rain.

“I’m sure we can find more, this is Florens you know, everything is in this city. The metal worker’s district will no doubt have some of this heavy duty stuff, we’ll simply do a little bit of casual looting, in the night, of course.”

“You seem to have gotten a certain… taste for looting. Lynthia and then the Orc’s where you organised taking everything not nailed down… and a number of things that were nailed down.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault I was put in such a convenient situation! What was I supposed to do? Not loot? No thank you. And hey, you know what the best deal ever is? The deal where it’s all free! How could I pass a deal like that up? That would be silly!” She smiled as she flicked the empty bottle aside with a tinkle of glass. “We’ll add finding more of this stuff to the plan.”

“Plan?”

“Mhmm, I’ve been making a plan, sort of. There’s finding out about where your, ah, murderers are exactly staying, that will need a little snooping, and there’s that you need to find out about your species so you can figure out if your really super concerning magic is too dangerous to use, and the other thing.”

“Why? We can just go to Brax’s family estate right now.”

Lyra let out a breath. “This isn’t going to be that simple. His estate is going to be secure, just marching up and fighting our way in is, uhm, probably not going to work, not unless you want half the city to come down on you and then there’s that we don’t know if the, uhm, others you want are actually there too, so uh, you know…”

“What are you suggesting,” said Opal squinting up at her.

“Just that we need to see where they are, and that’s going to take time. So… we need somewhere to stay. Plus looking into the libraries will take time too right?”

“There’s something you aren’t saying,” gravelled Rain eyeing Lyra who wouldn’t meet his gaze, one hoof turning back and forth against the cobble.

She remained silent.

Rain blinked as he realised what was bothering her. He rubbed at his jaw in thought. “I didn’t expect that the interest in your bounty would be so extreme. If there’s going to be people coming after you even when you are disguised that’s going to make things much more difficult, how are we to ask for information on Brax and his family when you are being attacked all the time?”

Lyra’s voice was low and pained as she replied.

“Yes, that is a problem, and for me, that there are gangs going after random half woollies, killing them because they look a bit like me? I don’t feel good about this, I feel… guilty.” Lyra’s shoulders slumped and she stared at Rain’s feet. “It’s not like I don’t have friends who are half woollies, it’s just something that happens you know, naturally meeting and getting to know them and then becoming familiar with someone who has something uncommon in common. All I can think of right now is that street gangs could be trying to kill them and it’s my fault, it’s my fault they could be dying… I- I saw the evidence in that bag, I know it’s happening.”

Rain reached out a paw and clasped her forearm. “I don’t like you being targeted like this.”

“But what am I supposed to do about it?!”

“Oh that’s easy,” said Opal. “Rain can just eat the gangs, and that Lord asshole too.”

“He can’t just- Lord Wranvyre is- these are really big and scary gangs!”

“So? Did you think he wouldn’t need food in this city sheepy?” Opal flashed her a white toothed grin and leaned forward, “Has to come from somewhere right? This way your sheepy friends are protected too. Just eat the gangs!”

“G-gods Opal, you can’t just make all the worlds problems go away by eating them!”

“I mean, you probably could though.”

Lyra let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m not even going to give that absurd statement the dignity of a reply. Look we do need to get a move on, I’d like to find somewhere to stay before sunset at least. We can start in the lower leveler’s areas, they will probably have less guards visiting so that’s good right?”

“Agreed,” gravelled Rain, “It’s not like you can hide us all of the time, we are on a timer and I’d rather you didn’t pass out for hours again.”

He leaned forward and clasped the sheep girl’s hips in his paws, lifting her then putting her on his shoulders just as Red jumped back into the dimensional bag. He then picked up Opal under one arm and watched carefully as they seemed to fall into shadow. Lyra’s invisibility taking hold.

Rain cautiously took a step from the warehouse door, having to crouch down so that Lyra didn’t bash her head against the doorframe. Outside the alley seemed as it was, peaceful, empty, the distant sounds of the city drifting by.

Looking at the city through wool space wasn’t quite the same as standing fully within it. It felt… special. The tall white stone walls of the alley loomed many stories above reaching for a strip of brilliant azure blue sky, the edges of massive miles high galleon clouds just visible past the rooftops.

Rain breathed and the air of the city filled his lungs, just smelling the life, the bustle of so many levelers going about their daily lives, thousands of them, hundreds of thousands, millions, a hunting grounds that was teeming with prey, so much to kill, so much to ea-

“Hey, we gonna go or are we just standing about here all day?” said Opal elbowing him in the side from where she was held in his arm.

Rain blinked and tried to recall what he had just been thinking about. Day dreaming probably. Not the best thing to be distracted by in a city peopled by millions of those who hunted and killed monsters as often as they could manage.

He made his way down the alley and then into the next, giant foot pads pressing against cobble warmed by the summer sun, the sounds of crowds drawing closer, closer, and then the alley was opening up and Rain was standing in front of a river of moving levelers. His height allowed him to look over their heads, hundreds of people in just this one street, laden market stalls lining the way like boulders in a stream as currents of people chattered and wandered by. It was a lot to deal with.

Above Lyra tugged one of his ears to get his attention.

“You’re going to have to be extra super careful, if someone stumbles into you it will break the invisibility, and at your size, well that’s kinda more likely than not. This street isn’t too busy but make sure to go slow.”

Rain took a step and eased out into the street, head moving quickly, watching to see if anyone was about to run into him. A Drake carrying a huge wicker basket was headed straight toward him and he carefully took a step to the side, squeezing up against a market stall as he brushed by, the corner of the basket inches from his fur.

The Drake continued on, clueless that he had been so incredibly close to an extremely dangerous monster.

It didn’t take long for Rain to get the hang of moving through the street, he learned rapidly as he went. The easiest thing to watch out for were clusters which were usually made up of groups of friends or families, easy to see where they were headed. Harder were singular workers rushing about, and harder still were unpredictable children. At one point Rain had to lift a leg as a Lapine and a Human child raced by laughing, practically running between his legs.

Still, with time, even those were something that could be skillfully avoided. It helped that he had Lyra and Opal keeping an eye out, either tugging at his ear and pointing or waving for his attention. Working together like that he was able to make his way through street after street with relative ease despite his size and he started to relax, the motions needed to avoid being run into becoming second nature, instinctive.

He felt a small hand grip at his fur as he turned a corner and looked ahead to see a crowd of what was perhaps fifty goblins being herded by, each of them wearing heavy iron collars. The levelers around them brandished switches to keep them from wandering off, not that there was much chance of that, the Goblins looked beyond exhausted, although that didn’t stop the overweight leveler at the front from bellowing their potential over the crowd.

“Rent a slave! Come rent yourselves a slave! A whole thirty percent off my usual offerin’. Help with the shopping! Lady, look how much work you’re putin’ in carrying round those bags, you’re all sweaty and a complete mess! For cryin’ out loud I’ve never seen someone in such need of a rental slave!”

The woman blushed but that didn’t stop her awkwardly approaching the loud mouthed slaver, the social pressure apparently working.

Behind him two Hobgoblins held up a pair of ten foot tall sticks which had a banner stretched between them, emblazoned with: ‘Calum’s Rent-A-Slave, just too copper a hour, (deeposit of one silver)’ in Goblin green paint.

Behind this parade of miserable looking Goblins came a massive six-wheeled wagon the size of a house, together the procession parted the stream of levelers that flowed through the street. The wagons motion was as slow as the many Goblins likely because it was being pulled by the many Goblins, dozens of knotted ropes winding through them.

The sides of the slow moving wagon were open and shaded by brightly coloured and trimmed canvas awnings. Within could be seen masses of tarnished and rusted armour and swords stacked in piles. A sign over the huge wagon said ‘Calum’s amazing valu armour! Keep you and your family safe in the dunjeon! (Now with Sords!)’ A muscular Orc was handing out pieces of what looked like dubious quality armour to those keeping pace with the slowly moving wagon.

Rain eyed a Human child running to keep up, a few copper coins held up high in her hands. The Orc grabbed them and handed her a rusty sword that was so bent it looked like it had an elbow.

“This is, hmm, pretty commercialised? They’re making money of the dungeon so- so brazenly?”

“Oh you have no idea! There are merchant companies making a fortune off the backs of unknowing levelers! Those complete idiots don’t even know they’re buying what amounts to tin, I guess it’s better than nothing but still, they’re totally getting ripped off and they’ll need to buy a new set of equipment as soon as they’re done with a run in the dungeon!”

“In the slums of Lynthia that kind of thing happened too, although not with dungeon stuff. A good pair of sandals lasts for years, but is expensive, a cheap pair of sandals lasts months but then you need to buy a new pair. No one could afford the expensive sandals so they bought the cheap pair and then bought another cheap pair when those wore out.” He snorted. “You’d end up spending more on sandals than someone in the higher quarters while barely scraping by. It was shit and unfair, but there was no other option.”

“I c-can’t say I ever experienced that, I was brought up- I didn’t mean you were- Ah, uhm, w-well it’s better than no sandals r-right?” said Lyra fidgeting nervously with Rain’s ears.

Rain remained silent.

They passed by the massive wagon full of wares and into a warren-like market, a market that like the wagon appeared to be selling things geared toward dungeon diving, everything from swords to armour to potions that promised to make you strong or stop you bleeding out or even just regular healing potions, apparently.

The air was filled with bellowed offers. Gruff and grizzled veterans offered guidance into the dungeon for a fee, and jewellery encrusted monster farmers offering to bring farm raised monsters to your doorstep for you to conveniently kill after breakfast while promising that their farmed monsters weren’t enfeebled like the others, and that was on top of all the armourers and merchants shouting their wares. It was deafening. Overwhelming.

Rain moved beyond the raucous markets quickly. Strangely he felt uncomfortable around them. In his past life he doubted he would have cared, maybe even relishing the opportunities to get ahead in the leveling race. But now? As a monster? The perspective was almost painfully different. Here was an industry dedicated to seeing him killed as efficiently as possible. He wasn’t even seen as an animal, just stock to be sold to clients, a disposable object, like the paper wrapper that food from a street vendor might come in, take the nutrition, the levels, then discard the wrapper, his corpse.

He found the brutal uncaringness of it all unsettling. Was this how Goblins felt all the time? He moved faster to take Opal away from the sight, moving away from the noise and into a decidedly more rundown area.

He felt Opal relax a little as he moved away. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but he also relaxed. That place was not a good place for a monster’s mental health.

Stratothrax

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